A Bourdieusian approach to academic reading: reflections on a South African teaching experience |
| |
| Authors: | Lloyd Hill Analía Inés Meo |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, 7602 Matieland, South Africalloydhill@sun.ac.za;3. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (National Council of Scientific and Technical Research, CONICET) and is based at the Instituto de Investigaciones ‘Gino Germani’, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| |
| Abstract: | As in many other parts of the world, ‘academic literacy’ has emerged as both a concern and a contested concept in South African universities. In this article we focus specifically on academic reading, which we argue is a relatively underemphasized aspect of academic literacy. This article is the product of reflections on academic reading during and subsequent to the development and presentation of a postgraduate module presented at Stellenbosch University. It briefly explores the literature on academic literacy; develops the Bourdieusian perspective on academic reading that we used to develop the module; and concludes with a discussion of the module. Our intention was to make ‘reading as social practice’ more visible to students. Bourdieu's concepts of ‘competence’, ‘habitus’ and ‘field’ set the scene for a discussion of the role of reading in different disciples and more generally within the social sciences and humanities. |
| |
| Keywords: | academic reading academic literacy language higher education South Africa |
|
|
